Re:If You Are Hit By Two Atomic Bombs, Should You Have Kids?
by brc on Wednesday July 18, 2012 @11:14PM
(#4264232)
Indeed - one of the biggest learning moments for me in life is learning how much natural radiation exists. Housebricks and other items are radioactive.
A lifetime of anti-nuclear propaganda had made me fear anything that was radioactive. This ranges from the harmless (radiation plot points in movies) to the outright idiotic (Fukushima spawned plenty of this). There needs to be public education about what levels of radiation are safe, otherwise we're all as irrational as someone with arachnaphobia when a tiny spider walks into a room.
Yet in truth there are safe dosages of radiation, and all the man-made radiation in the world has actually been a strong net positive.
Re:If You Are Hit By Two Atomic Bombs, Should You Have Kids?
by stephengillie on Thursday July 19, 2012 @10:23AM
(#4266107)
That said, I worry about too much the 'playing down' of nuclear warfare. One of my fears these events move out of living memory into history is that people don't 'get' just how horrific the destruction is. Of course that isn't going to stop the crazies. I don't doubt for a minute that we'll refresh our 'living memory' of just what its like to have a nuclear bomb go off in a city of millions, too many people have access and probability tells us one of them is too stupid not to try it.